The Acropolis Museum in Athens

Our main activity for today was a visit to the Acropolis Museum. And what a place.

It is a modernistic building

– quite a contrast to the monuments above.  Visiting shortly before noon, there waa a substantial line to enter through a metal detector; but the place is so big that we never felt that we were really crowded anywhere in the museum

The museum is organized into a floor of archaic materials taken from the Acropolis (and elsewhere) in the period before the golden age of Athens, then a floor devoted to materials from the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erecthyon, and finally a full floor devoted to the Parthenon.  Each had special treasures for us to see.
  

We began with an exhibit devoted to the FIRST temple to Athena up on the site, now completely in ruins, located between the Erecthyon and the Parthenon.  There were significant pieces of the old pediment of the building for us to see

The hallway leading to the hall of archaic statues had cases full of lovely miniatures

as well as a few outstanding statues

Here Dionysus is holding a theatrical mask and riding on the shoulders of Papposilenos, his tutor.

In this statue from around 300 BC, Demeter, Persephone and Aesclepius received a visit from famous doctors

Photos were forbidden in the hall of archaic treasures, but I wroked fto find a way around the rules by shooting from just outside the hall.  Eventually it became clear to me that some of the guards could not care less about photos, so the trick was to take photos when THEY were around, and gto be a bit more surreptitious when the more persnickety guards were nearby (and of course being apologetic when noticed).

I particularly liked the small smile on this lady’s statue

On the second floor we saw exhibits related to the Temple of Athena Nike

There was a balustrade protecting visitors from falling off the edge -- a highly decorated one!

Here Athena is bestowing honors on Proxenides, who is being introduced to him by Aphrodite

The rest of the floor was devoted to the Erecthyon, including its frieze

but most impressive was the display of the original Caryatids  (also the lead photo on this post); being able to get up close to the originals, combining design with function as pillars, was a highlight for the day

There was also a video showing how lasers were used to snip away at the dirt encrusted on the Caryatids over the centuries

The third floor was devoted to the Parthenon: the statuary rescued from the metopes, the friezes, and the pediments, as well as reconstructions where the originals are elsewhere (for example, thank you Lord Elgin),  were ranged around the floor, in the order, the dimensions, and even the orientation of the original building, and displayed in tandem with each other

there were also smaller reconstructions to enable visitors to imagine thw environs of the full-sized exhibits on display.  Here are the reconstructions of the west and east pediments, respectively

For a reality check, we had only to look out the large windows at the original, looming above

From the south side metopes, here are reconstructed reliefs showing centaurs battling lapiths

the bright white is a dead giveaway that these are plaster copies



These horsemen are originals from the north side

Nancy and I had lunch in the rooftop cafe of the Hotel Byron, responding to a solicitation from the barker in the hotel’s doorway.  The food was fine, but unremarkable.  We had been assured that they took credit cards (part of the solicitation), but the waitperson claimed that they were “having trouble with the machine.”  Bait and switch I do not appreciate.  The lobby of the hotel was well supplied with better maps of Athens than the ones we had grabbed at the airport, so I took two or three different ones for the rest of our days there (plus our 27 hours on the way home).

While the children slept, we hung out in our apartment waiting for the arrival Joe’s arrival.  He and I then took a quick walk around Athens, with me retracing the steps Nancy and I had taken on our first walk around Athens.   I made a point of passing through Monastiraki Square, where we had picked up cherries for a dollar a pound as well as apricots on our first day Athens walk-around; today I went for cherries and peaches as the amazing prices of a dollar a pound for excellent cherries and fifty cents a pound for peaches a day away from being ready to eat.

My long-time friend from playing pickup soccer, Danny Riemer, told me that whenever he and his family visit Athens, Thanassi on Mitreopolous is a must-stop for souvlaki.  So that is where Joe and I had dinner.  Not that souvlaki is my favorite of Greek dishes, but it was fine souvlaki!